Dissecting Political Violence

Abstract

This pithy and persuasive volume brings together a remarkable range of theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the origins, dynamics, and consequences of political violence by dissecting it into more analytically coherent components. The theoretical glue that holds it together is the sustained focus on the micro-dynamics of violence, on disaggregating nonviolence into more rigorous subtypes, and on distinguishing violence from conflict. This focus affords readers with a novel research agenda that contributes appreciably to the growing literature on political violence and motivates the ten articles that comprise the volume. It should therefore be of general interest to graduate and advanced undergraduate students of political science, as well as to the mounting number of policy analysts and international affairs practitioners confronting ethno-nationalist conflicts and political violence around the world. Scholars of other disciplines who are interested in violence and conflict, including economists, psychologists, and sociologists, should also find plenty of food for thought. It has long been the hope of many that a better understanding of violence would reduce its incidence, and this book certainly contributes to a more profound appreciation of the micro-dynamics of violence.